I’ve been playing with Google’s Deep Dream a little bit. I like the way these two images turned out:

This rose came from an original photograph I saw on Reddit. I like how it looks like a rose with maybe some pepper or something in it when you look at a small thumbnail, but when you embiggen it to its full size, there’s a whole lot of creepy stuff going on in there.

The other one just finished dreaming a few minutes ago. It’s based off of this picture of three politicians in regrettable golf pants.

Here’s the image as the dream is getting started. Again, you’ll want to embiggen this to fully appreciate it.

It would have been fine to stop it there, because it’s just a little creepy, but I let it go deeper into the dream…

We’ve moved from creepy into funny and a little surreal, but by the time it was done, it had gone all the way back around to creepy and landed in nightmare.

I particularly like how Tip O’Neill is getting literally two-faced in that final image.

Me: I’m going to get some words down on this story I’ve been developing for months!

My brain: Okay. Let’s do this.

My body: Not so fast. I have to cough so much all of our muscles are going to hurt.

Me: Okay. You done?

My body: Not just yet. I also have to sort of ache a little bit and also produce a whole bunch of snot and crap for you. Also, I need to cough some more.

Me: Got it. Now, let’s get to work!

My body: Can we just put a pin in that for a moment? Our throat needs some attention. It’s not nearly scratchy enough. Oh, and this cough isn’t really doing anything, but it’s a whole thing now, and I’m not really ready to give it up.

My brain: Um. Fellas?

Me: Yeah?

My body: What’s up, brain?

My brain: This is bullshit. When you’re ready to get your shit together, you let me know, and we’ll do some awesome creative work. Until then, I’m going to check out and focus on amusing cat pictures.

Me: NO! YOU CAN’T DO THIS! I NEED YOU!

My brain: I know he isn’t going to actually buy a boat, but my god this is still as funny as it was the first time.

Me: YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!

My brain: Let’s play pinball arcade, buddy.

My body: Yeah, about that … I’ve slowed down your reactions and increased the coughing. I am really into this whole coughing thing.

Me: I think I’ll just go take a nap.

My body and my brain: Finally, something we can all agree on!

My body: … I’m just going to keep coughing. Sorry not sorry.

Just in time for me to commit to spending my August working on my own projects and recovering from months and months of endless work, I seem to have come down with some sort of summer cold.

Because of course I did.

Anyway, I’ll complain about it for a day or two, and then I’ll just power through and stay focused on my writing projects, and maybe I’ll finally edit together some videos I’ve been meaning to edit forever.

I’m still making occasional episodes of Not Radio Free Burrito, if you’re into that sort of thing. Maybe I’ll make one where I just cough and sneeze and grumble about it. That’s what the people want, and I know how to give the people what they want.

Speaking of that, here’s the season finale of Titansgrave:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs9Dzgaz-aA

I can’t believe we’re done with this season. It feels like we just started.

Can I hibernate? I want to hibernate for a couple of months.

I feel like years and years of hard work has allowed me the privilege to take this time for my own work, say no to projects or things I don’t really want to do, and focus on getting excited and making things.

So the plan has been to take August off (except for @Midnight on the 19th and two installments of Critical Role, both things I want to do because they’re fun) to just write and be creative.

I thought I’d have some progress toward finishing one of these writing projects by now (since it’s Thursday, after all), but  I’ve spent this week recovering emotionally and physically from GenCon (more on that later when I can properly organize all those thoughts).

For the longest time, I’ve felt guilty if I take time to do things like watch movies or read a stack of comics, and even though I remind myself that part of my job is to be familiar with and inspired by the things I want to create, the loudest and most insistent part of my brain does a lot of “umactually…” at me a lot of the time.

But here I am, watching almost two movies a night, reading on average a book a week, playing and learning lots of games, and generally just doing my best to feed my creative side, so it’s ready to go when I ask it to work with me to turn ideas into stories.

This feels strange, but also good.